Decandling follow-up

After some debate around whether or not to decandle one of my pines, I decided to remove the strongest shoots. I did this on June 16th. Five weeks later, the new shoots are growing well.

Japanese black pine – 5 weeks after decandling

Somewhat surprisingly, the growth is strong on the top, middle, and lower branches.

Three buds at the end of the first branch on the left

Buds on the middle branches

Buds near the top of the tree

One reason for the equal growth in different zones is that the shoots I removed were all about the same size. To help these buds along, I’ll begin ramping up the fertilizing and will continue to feed the tree heavily through fall.

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I presume you will be reducing the 3 buds/shoots to 2 or perhaps even 1 in some locations. Will you do it now or will you wait until they have developed into shoots this fall? What do you see as the pros and cons of the timing to reduce excessive summer buds/shoots?